MS
Why is my ETF getting yellow tips in thinner areas?
Some (but not all) my my lawn has developed some yellow on the tips. It’s mostly where the lawn hasn’t thickened up very well.
I last put down some all seasons N+ in Feb, and some charger twice since then.
What’s the likely cause / solution?
Will almost definitely be fungal, you will need to post a clear, close up photo grass blades.
Your granular fert in february isn't going to carry the lawn through winter. You really should of been putting one down 6-8 weeks after the previous application. The thinner areas will usually show deficiencies first because they’ve got weaker root mass and less stored energy. You can't rely on just charger as a feeding source, There could be a light fungal component starting. Yellow/orange tipped leaves in thinner areas can be early leaf spot stress, especially if the lawn has been staying damp overnight.
here is a close up. I'm in Central Otago and we've just started getting some frosts. I'll get another load of granular down.
@Michael Smith Have a look to see if there’s consistent yellowing on leaf blades that are torn at the ends. It could simply be the thinner areas laying over more during mowing, giving a poor cut and tearing the leaf blades.That said, it does look slightly fungal as well, so I’d probably get an application of Azoxy down anyway as a solid preventative measure.
@Michael Smith thanks for posting. My EFT in Auckland looks very similar. I’m about to apply granular fert only (no Azoxy on hand) so we can see what happens.
@Phil.P just mowed now. No yellow blades so either the fert fixed it or new mower blades - it wasn’t fungal in my case.